


stumbling, falling

by glassrhinos



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, M/M, One Shot, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-10
Updated: 2015-08-10
Packaged: 2018-04-13 22:41:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4540185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glassrhinos/pseuds/glassrhinos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry doesn't know if the boy on the bench is dead, asleep, or homeless. He does, however, know he's cute.</p>
            </blockquote>





	stumbling, falling

**Author's Note:**

> I'm always a slut for fluff and college AUs.

Harry stumbles out of class, shielding his hands from the sun, his eyes struggling to adjust to the glare - whether that be because it was just the sun or because England got sun so rarely his eyes literally didn’t know what the sun was, he wasn’t yet sure. He ambled across the courtyard, headed to the bench he sat in every single day after class to eat his salad, when his phone rang. He answered without looking at the screen, knowing it was Niall. 

“What’s up, Nail? Did you finally get with Barbara or are you watching her creepily from across the cafeteria still?” Harry said, adjusting his backpack straps as he waited for the answer he already knew was coming. 

“Fuck you. I’m not even in the cafeteria, I’m waiting for Botany to start.” Niall said, his Irish accent slaughtering the word botany. 

“Ah, my dear Niall, what a load of shit. Even Zayn knows you’re in the cafeteria and he’s studying abroad right now. Also, you don’t have Botany today, you idiot, and it’s not until 10 anywa-” Harry stops in his tracks, his mouth falling slightly open as he takes in the scene in front of him. “Hey, how can you tell if someone is dead?” 

“They’re super pale, rigid to the touch - Wait, why the fuck are you asking me this? What’d you do this time?” The blonde headed boy asked, alarm seeping into his voice only in the last part of his sentence. If this were under any other circumstances, Harry would’ve been worried about how fast Niall answered that question. However, there was a boy laying on his bench, and Harry wasn’t sure if he needed to dial 999 or not. 

“Nothing, hey, I’ll call you back, okay?” Harry said, not waiting on a response from Niall before he hung up on him. He just stood in front of the bench for a minute, contemplating what to do next. He was pretty sure the boy wasn’t dead, but he wasn’t entirely sure. He was also fairly sure that the stranger wasn’t homeless, as campus security did a fairly good job of keeping the campus safe. But then again, campus security also traveled by Segway, so how good of a job could they really be doing? 

Dropping his backpack on the ground, Harry took a hesitant step forward, trying to muster up the courage to see if the boy was dead or not. His hand was hovering over the other boy’s shoulder when he snored, causing Harry to jump higher than he would ever admit. Well, at least he wasn’t dead. Harry was an English major for a reason, Liam was the Criminology major in the group. He couldn’t handle a nosebleed without wanting to barf, he was pretty sure touching a dead body would end up with him in the morgue as well. 

After dawdling for another five minutes, Harry finally shook the shoulder of the shoulder, pretending that he hadn’t noticed the muscles he could feel through the thick olive green cargo jacket the boy had on. The boy awoke with a start, looking straight into Harry’s eyes and fuck, Harry was gone. He blinked, trying to ignore the fact his brain was on full alert, alarms sounding, lights flashing the same blue as the mystery boy’s eyes. Finally, after a full minute of the two just staring at each other, Harry realized he should probably say something.

“I hope it’s okay that I woke you up, I didn’t know if you were okay or not and I was on the phone with my friend and he was helping me figure out if you were dead and I was trying to figure out whether to call emergency services and…” He trailed off when he realized he was rambling, the small smirk the other boy had a full blown one by the end of Harry’s long sentence. “Mate, it’s fine. I was studying for an exam and it was getting warmer and I just fell asleep. It’s cool.” So the boy had a Northern accent. Harry was from up North himself, his mind slowly starting to churn, wondering if they had any other similarities. _No! Cut it out!_ He thought to himself, trying to shake those thoughts out of his head. 

“I’m Harry, by the way. Just so you know.” He said, sticking his hand out, doing the exact opposite of what his brain was telling him to do. 

“I’m Louis, thanks for letting me know.” _Oh, what a great name. No, shut up! It’s an ugly name! No it isn’t! Shut up!_ Harry’s brain was running a thousand miles a minute, only slightly registering that Louis had stuck his hand out as well, but Harry had never bothered to start shaking it. Currently, they were basically just holding hands. Instead of shaking Louis’ hand, Harry just dropped it, surreptitiously trying to wipe his clammy hands that were rapidly nearing sweaty territory against his pants, apparently failing when Louis bit the corner of his chapped lips and looked away. 

“Look, I have to get to my next class, but maybe I’ll see you around, yeah?” Louis said, stretching as he stood up, shrugging his backpack, an act that shouldn’t turn Harry on, but nonetheless did. 

“Okay, that would be great! Have a good day!” Harry said, punching himself mentally at how stupid he sounded as Louis walked away. He was never going to see Louis again, that was for sure. Their were twenty thousand students at his school. He was in his third year and had only recognized about four faces in all of his classes total. So, instead of thinking about Louis some more, Harry sat down at his bench, the wood still slightly warm from Louis’ body heat, something Harry definitely did not notice. And he definitely did not walk to his next class sulking. At all. 

****

**\----  
**

And yet, when Harry walked to his bench the next day, Louis was there, this time decidedly not asleep. He slowed down his walk, almost tripping over his own legs in the process. Louis looked up from his textbook when he noticed the shadow fall over the pages describing the anatomy of a body. 

“So, Harry, I realized I forgot something yesterday.” 

“What was that?” 

“Your number.” 

**Author's Note:**

> My Tumblr is glassrhinos (main) and harryslavenderjumper (sideblog, but basically my main) - send me ideas for one shots! Also, this fic is for Tator (fuckboylou) even if she has questionable ships (******).


End file.
